Doctor pressured patients into getting unnecessary brain treatments in Texas, feds say

A Texas doctor pressured his patients into getting “unnecessary brain stimulation treatments,” federal authorities said, then he billed Medicare for what were described as “worthless services.”

Now, Dr. Ashok Jain, 61, and the psychiatric companies he owned and operated have agreed to pay $3 million to settle claims of improperly billing Medicare, according to a March 3 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas.

“This office will actively pursue and prosecute those who take advantage of our aged population and those who seek psychiatric care and counseling,” U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani said in the release. “It is particularly egregious when those citizens who seek care are given unnecessary treatment and not the treatment that would benefit them. Providers who participate in federally funded programs like Medicare have a responsibility to the public to provide legitimate, safe care and treatment.”

The defense attorney representing Jain did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News on March 3.

Authorities said an investigation into Jain and his companies — Psychiatric Solutions P.C., Longview Psychiatric Center PLLC and Longview Psychiatric Center LP — began when two of his clinic employees filed a whistleblower lawsuit in July 2021.

“During their terms of employment, they allegedly witnessed patients being pressured to accept unnecessary medical treatments as well as the falsification of treatment records and billing Medicare for worthless services or services the clinic did not provide,” officials said.

Investigators found that Jain ran the scheme from Jan. 1, 2015, through Dec. 31, 2021, according to the settlement agreement.

In the agreement, authorities said Jain’s clinics submitted claims for Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation procedures that were either not actually performed or unnecessary. He also billed Medicare for physician assessments even when he didn’t see the patient, according to court records.

“Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a noninvasive procedure that uses magnetic fields to stimulate nerve cells in the brain to improve symptoms of depression,” according to the Mayo Clinic. “TMS is typically used when other depression treatments haven’t been effective. This treatment for depression involves delivering repetitive magnetic pulses, so it’s called repetitive TMS or rTMS.”

In the settlement, the people who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the U.S. will receive $300,000 from the recovery, according to the release.

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